A. Related Applications
There are no applications related hereto heretofore filed by the instant inventor in this or any foreign country.
B. Field of Invention
My invention relates generally to passive handles for exercise devices, and more particularly to a loop type handle formed in a flexible cord with an elongate handle slidably carried thereon to allow user determination of the degree of passivity of use.
C. Background and Description of Prior Art
Exercise of the upper portion of the human body is generally accomplished by some type of activity of the arms, and this activity when conducted in conjunction with exercise devices generally involves the gripping of some sort of a handle structure by the hands. Exercise devices for this purpose, both for the amateur and for professional therapeutic use, are many and varied, but most share in common some sort of a handle structure to maintain the user's hand relative to the exercise device. The instant invention provides a new and novel handle to allow varying degrees of passive use of such exercise devices.
Handles for upper body exercise devices generally have provided some sort of a rigid, cylindrical structure that extends laterally across the palm or inner finger portion of a user's hand so that the outer finger portion of the hand may be closed about the handle to grasp and positionally maintain it. Most of such handle structures take the form of an elongate rod-like element extending between the spacedly opposed legs of a stirrup-type yoke. Such handles are often configured in somewhat of a barrel-like shape with a prolately enlarged medial portion to better, more comfortably and conformably fit a user's hand and aid grasping. The use of such type of handle structures has become so universal that users are habitually familiar with the structure and have developed muscular and neural responses for the grasping of such handles that aid that grasping, both by reason of muscular development and familiarity.
Often when using exercise devices with such handle structure, especially in the case of rehabilitative physical therapy, the potential user may not have adequate muscle strength or neural control to effectively grasp and operatively maintain such a handle structure, yet exercise with such a device may not only be desirable but also necessary to aid in developing appropriate neural control and muscular strength. This creates a rather self-defeating type problem which has heretofore been recognized and responsively, various solutions have heretofore been proposed. My invention provides a novel solution to the problem in the form of a new and different handle structure.
When a user cannot actively maintain appropriate manual interconnection with an exercise device, the most common method of providing such interconnections has been to use some type of a passive interconnecting device or mechanism. Most such passive connectors have provided an elongate, flexible strap or band that has been wrapped in some fashion, generally in multiple courses, about the fingers and the associated handle structure to interconnect a hand and a handle in a manner sufficient to allow the contemplated exercise functions. In some such interconnections a strap has been attached, generally in a single course, about some portion of the wrist or arm structure rather than being wound directly about the clenched fingers. Such straps also in some instances have provided a hook or other similar rigid fastening means to engage a handle to carry substantially the entire load or force generated thereby. Any such passive fastening devices, however, tend to disrupt the normal muscular and neural activity required for ordinary handle grasping and therefore do not completely fulfill the desired exercise result. Such devices also generally require either completely active or completely passive grasping and do not allow variations that partially involve both activities, so that it is not possible to accomplish varying degrees of active handle grasping with them.
My invention, in contradistinction to such prior devices, provides an elongate flexible cord element knotted at its end part to form a loop which extends through an elongate slidable handle having an enlarged knot-facing portion with a smaller body portion extending therefrom. The handle is used with the loop extending about the back of the user's wrist and with the handle portion on the palm, oriented with the enlarged portion facing the fingertips and the interconnecting cord extending between two of a user's fingers. With this arrangement, the loop may be completely passively used to interconnect a user's hand by tightening it appropriately by moving the handle. A user may also tighten his fingers about the handle member in a grasping fashion to allow varying degrees of active involvement of the hand and fingers as determined by the user. This handle structure then provides a handle that extends more in an elongate fashion on a palm side of a user's hand, as opposed to the generally lateral fashion of the ordinary handle, and allows varying amount of active participation in grasping, from a completely passive type grip to a completely active one as determined by a user.
My invention resides not in any one of these features individually, but rather in the synergistic combination of all of the structures of my handle that necessarily give rise to the functions flowing therefrom, as herein specified and claimed.